Asian Champions Trophy: India emerge victorious in final after scare

India players celebrate after scoring against Malaysia at Chennai on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Amidst chants of music legend AR Rahman's famous Vande Mataram from a near-10,000 strong crowd, India eked out a thrilling 4-3 win over Malaysia in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Saturday.

It was a match of two halves with India starting poorly, but finishing brilliantly for a record fourth ACT triumph in seven editions.

Jugraj steps up

India opened the scoring through their first penalty corner in the ninth minute. With skipper and star drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh out taking a breather, Jugraj Singh stepped up and beat Malaysian custodian Hafizuddin Othman with a powerful flick. Malaysia bounced right back. In the 14th minute, Azuan Hasan picked up the ball and ran in from the right to relay a cross to Abu Kamal Azrai who tapped in for 1-1. With a spring in their step, the Malaysians began the second quarter in brilliant fashion, earning a penalty corner. Familiar foe Razie Rahim (18th minute) drag flicked the ball home to put India behind for the first time in this tournament.

In response, the Indian midfield and forwards seemed direction-less. The midfield kept pumping in long passes into the Malaysian box with the hope of some Indian forward meeting the ball. That never happened. Instead, Malaysia added insult to injury with another goal, earning another penalty corner and scoring through Muhamad Aminudin (28th) for 3-1. India began the third quarter better, with Hardik Singh and Sukhjeet Singh making deep runs, but unable to score. Then, in 60 seconds of mayhem, the match turned on its head as India scored twice. Sukhjeet was wrongly tackled inside the Malaysian box and Harmanpreet (45th) scored off the resulting penalty stroke to take his tally to nine goals.

Indians hit back in style

As Malaysia restarted, India snatched the ball and launched another attack with Gurjant Singh (45th) this time tapping in a rising ball into goal to restore parity at 3-3. The spectators were now on the edge of their seats as was chief guest Anurag Thakur, India's Sports Minister. And four minutes from the final whistle, Mandeep Singh made up for all his misses throughout the tournament with a sweet backpass inside the Malaysian box which Akashdeep Singh (56th) trapped and slammed home for the tournament-winner.

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The forwards continued missing a couple of shots on goal thereafter too and Harmanpreet failed to a convert a couple of more penalty corners, but it didn't matter as the final whistle signalled not just a brilliant win, but also confirmed that this Indian hockey team are on the right path as they head into the Asian Games next month.

Japan take bronze

Earlier Asian Games champions Japan won the bronze medal match, beating Korea 5-3. Ryoma Ooka (3rd min), Ryosei Kato (9th), Kentaro Fukuda (28th), Shota Yamada (53rd) and Ken Nagayoshi 56th were on target for Japan. Jonghyun Jang (15th and 33rd) netted a brace for Korea while Cheoleon Park (26th) scored one.